Play boardgames with friends and soon-to-be-friends as well as some of the friendly staff at Modern Myths! It’s a great night to try out something you may have been meaning to check out! We really recommend Istanbul or Photosynthesis if they’ve got those. Chill, entertaining games of friendly competition.

Community:

Thursday, December 28th

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM

Creating Community for Women with Chronic Illness

A monthly support group for women living with any sort of chronic illness, free and open to the public!

Kids:

This is a kids movie sequel of dubious quality, but that’s not what’s important. It’s the tagline. “Nutty by Nature”. The literal only thing that could refer to is the hip-hop group “Naughty by Nature”, which had a hit single in the song O.P.P., in 1991. This is, to say the least, a strange tagline for a recently release children’s movie.

A holiday penguin party with local author Eric Bennett as he reads his penguin-related book Noodles & Albie’s Birthday Surprise! He’s also going to talk about penguins, teach you to draw penguins, and have treats and giveaways! Recommended for penguins aged 4-9!

Author and illustrator Gina Perry will share the story of a little girl who feels overwhelmed by such a big world all around her! Eventually she realizes she is actually quite big thanks to the fact that she’s very neat. It sounds like a good story!

Thursday, December 28th

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Family Drive in Movie Night

Decorate your own cardboard cars and enjoy a screening of Cars 3! Whatever you do, don’t think about how many cars are almost certainly killed over the course of the film or how gruesome it would be if they weren’t anthropomorphic cars.

RPGs:

A D&D club for players 8-12! You can become a member of this club by paying $50/mo. That gets you help with creating a character, a mini, a custom D&D session, and a set of dice! It’s the perfect way to play a fun game with friends! We recommend you play a bard. Actually everyone should play as a bard and you should be adventurers by day and a traveling band by night!

A D&D club for players 8-12! Play a god trapped in mortal form so whenever you need to retire the character you can explain to everyone that actually you were the toughest and best all along, notwithstanding that time you rolled three critical fails and tripped over your armor into a lava pit.

Play one of the classic RPGs at Modern Myths! New players are always welcome, and there’s a friendly crowd there every week! We recommend playing fast and loose, since it’s a drop-in drop-out game, so worst case you can come back in a few months with your bard’s ‘long-lost estranged cousin who’s also a mage and much taller’.

The Valley Nerd Watch!

If you are a grad student: speak to your union rep and your adviser and whoever else you can rely on for advice. The tax bill that looks like it’s going to pass might make it no longer possible for you to remain in your program. If you can’t afford to stay in graduate school, it’s better to find out earlier rather than later.

Also come to Nerd Nite Monday, December 11th at the World War II Club in Northampton! It’s going to be about plane crashes and how to survive them, as well as dancing! It’ll be fun and scary for different reasons to different people!

Are you a fan of Greenfield Games? Of course you are! They’re an excellent local shop that sells you games that you love. And now thanks in part to the efforts of roaming board game evangelist Justin Dowd, they have a regular Saturday Games Night! Head to Greenfield Games every Saturday to play some board games with pals!

THIS WEEK

Art:

Take a break from your day to learn about the history of landscape painting in Europe! Alla Rosenfeld will let you in on all the secrets of landscape painting in Europe, like how it is all these artists could afford a nice trip to Europe to paint!

Using stamps and colored pencils as well as markers and more, you’ll be able to create works of art! That you can mail! Which technically includes all non-installation artwork, but definitely especially includes postcards! Grades 5-12 welcome, sign up in advance because space is limited!

Board Games:

Play board-games with friends and soon-to-be-friends as well as some of the friendly staff at Modern Myths! It’s a great night to try out something you may have been meaning to check out! We really recommend Istanbul or Photosynthesis if they’ve got those. Chill, entertaining games of friendly competition.

Heroes! Clicking? It’s impossible to resist. This time, make your Heroclix only characters with Strange in the name! That’s Dr. Strange, Hugo Strange, and it’s not our job to find everything for you we got you started with some now find a full team.

From the site: “The Odyssey Bookshop is thrilled to host a brilliant group of children’s book creators for a group signing. The perfect holiday gift for someone special in your life–or for your own personal collection! Can’t make it to the event? Pre-order a book in-store or online and we’ll get it signed and personalized for you! (We also offer free gift wrapping and we can ship worldwide!)”

From the site: “Red and Lulu make their nest in a particularly beautiful evergreen tree. It shades them in the hot months and keeps them cozy in the cold months, and once a year the people who live nearby string lights on their tree and sing a special song: O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree. But one day, something unthinkable happens, and Red and Lulu are separated. It will take a miracle for them to find each other again. Luckily, it’s just the season for miracles. . . ” Halloween!

More than 42 million people in the US are from other countries! America has always been a haven for people seeking refuge with some really important exceptions and also super not recently. During the current horrific anti-immigrant rhetoric, it’s a good idea to remind yourself that recipes from other cultures are amazing and that we owe everyone who immigrates to America a lot! Samples from the book will be available to taste, and $5 from each sale will go to the ACLU!

Card Games:

A limited booster draft featuring the newest set: Unstable! Entry is $18 and there’s a hard cap of 16 players so sign up early! Prizes are at least a booster pack per player plus packs per round win and some promo cards and more! Delightfully stable prize pool for a delightfully unstable night of cards!

Comic Books:

A monthly meetup to discuss and share your favorite comics! You’ll also get a chance to create one of your own with provided artist supplies! Intended for elementary, tween, and teen readers and artists!

Saturday, December 9th

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM

Graphic Novel Club (Ages 11-17) and Teen Craft (Avatar Creations)

Registration required! Crafts and comics, the best of both worlds! Register by sending an email to teens@joneslibrary.org!

Community:

Meet the authority at a catered free event! Eat food and let the administrators of the Town of Palmer know exactly what you think is important! Discuss topics that have a direct bearing on your existence with people who might be able to cause things to change for the better!

Computers:

The Foundry [24 Main St., Northampton, MA] at 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Northampton Webdive – After Work

A regular meetup of people who do web dev work! It’s a great place to meet and chat about your work and also fun stuff you do!

Entertainment:

Kandie Carle presents a show-and-tell! This is going to include dressing “Elizabeth Bennett” and “Mr. Darcy”, as well as sharing passages from Austen’s work! Ms Carle will give this detailed overview of clothing all while dressed in authentic Regency attire! Discover how important fashion can be!

Watch anime! Watch one about robots! Gundam, maybe? There are more than one Gundam series, right? We just heard about one episode being so bad it was expelled from the canon, which could be fun to watch!

Kids:

Deanna Cook will demonstrate recipes from her new book Baking Class, and kids will have an opportunity to design their own treats at a cookie decorating station! Free and open to the public, suggested for ages 6-12!

Movies:

Pizza and a movie: the ultimate chance to have pizza and also watch a movie. Teens, don’t let this slip by! This is your chance to have pizza and watch a film! It’s a hoot to do so with pals!

Thursday, December 7th

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Film & Discussion Series: 13th

From the site: “Join us for “13th” – a powerful documentary which explores the history of race and the criminal justice system in the United States, by Ava DuVernay, the director of Selma. The first half of this film was viewed at the October meeting. Tonight, we will view the second half and discuss it.” Free and open to the public!

Friday, December 8th

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Teen Lounge: Movie – Valerian (PG-13)

See the spectacle from acclaimed spectacle-creator and slightly less acclaimed narrative-maker behind The Fifth Element and Lucy, Luc Besson! At the least it’ll have very cool looking images in it.

Steve Gleason was diagnosed with ALS at age 34. He chose to use his last years to try to live life to its fullest, and chronicled it for his unborn son. You’re invited to stay after for a discussion about the film and ALS hosted by Sunderland Resident Madelyn Griffin, a family friend of the Gleasons.

RPGs:

A monthly D&D club for players 8-12! You can become a member of this club by prepaying $50. That gets you help with creating a character, a mini, a custom D&D session, and a set of dice! It’s the perfect way to play a fun game with friends! We recommend you play a bard. Actually everyone should play as a bard and you should be adventurers by day and a traveling band by night!

RPGs are great! Play Noirlandia, or Questlandia, or Dread, or Monsterhearts, or Apocalypse World, or Dogs in the Vineyard, or One Thousand and One Nights, or any of a lot of amazing games created right here in this Valley! They’re all very good!

Play one of the classic RPGs at Modern Myths! New players are always welcome, and there’s a friendly crowd there every week! We recommend playing fast and loose, since it’s a drop-in drop-out game, so worst case you can come back in a few months with your bard’s ‘long-lost uncle who’s also secretly a god’.

Become a hero! Join the Pathfinder Society and seek out bold new adventure in this fantasy role-playing game! It’s limited to seven people on a first-come first-serve basis, but it’s not a bad idea to stop by and say hi even if it fills up! There’s always more adventure on the way!

Players will take on the roles of characters from a variety of genres thrust into the city at the center of reality as refugees! There will be goblins in this one and there will also be an elimination style baking competition so if you’ve been waiting to play Chopped but with goblins, this is your hour!

The Valley Nerd Watch!

We realized halfway into writing a thing about the boardgame Root that we probably shouldn’t put like a thousand words at the top of this thing so we’re going to write a bigger thing about it tomorrow!

In the meantime we’d like to propose that you check out the newest surefire Kickstarter success “Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff by Hussie, Dril, and KC Green”. It is produced by TopatoCo, a local outfit that generally seems to do a good job. It also involves KC Green, one of the most influential artists to come out of the Pioneer Valley since Emily Dickinson.

Also John Hodgman, who did his best work while summering in the Pioneer Valley, has written a good book about his decision to become a more Maine-centric person and how that has made his life both more noble and more bleak. Vacationland is so far a quite good collection of essays that are usually funny or tragic or both and we like it. Purchase it from a local book retailer like Broadside Bookshop in Northampton!

THIS WEEK

Art:

Writer! Write with others! Tackle your novel at an event that encourages writers of all skill levels and experience to tackle the challenge of writing a novel! This is led by Forbes Writer in Residence Naila Moreira. Prizes will be awarded to NaNoWriMo writers who finish their novels!

Tuesday, November 21st

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Art Lab (Ages 4-8)

A lab where you can experiment with materials and methods of crafting art! If you are 4-8 years old, to be specific.

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Craft: Yarn Feathers (Ages 11-17) Registration Required

Yarn! Feathers! Put them together and what do you have? Oddly enough, a coffee pot. No idea why that happens, pretty sure it’s a bug. You’ve got to pre-register to make your yarn into feathers, at 413-259-3091 or contact teens@joneslibrary.org.

Adults who write for children, come hang out and critique each other! Like, constructively critique each other about books. Don’t just get together to be mean to each other in a group. Facilitated by Nell Wright! Help others and get help with your own writing!

Board Games:

Chess, the game of dukes as they say! Hone your skills at a board game that’s really been waiting on a sequel forever! Get some games under your belt so that you’ll be able to follow the plot in the upcoming Chess: The Movie!

Play boardgames with friends and soon-to-be-friends as well as some of the friendly staff at Modern Myths! It’s a great night to try out something you may have been meaning to check out! We really recommend Istanbul or Photosynthesis if they’ve got those. Chill, entertaining games of friendly competition.

You can either get 20% off your purchase or donate 20% of your purchase to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts! The Food Bank donates a ton of food to your friends and neighbors, and you should do what you can to help them out! There are free refreshments all day, a gift with any purchases totaling $50 or more, and there are going to be guests including Mira Bartok and Holly Black!

Celebrate the release of the box set of The Journey Trilogy! It’s an epic wordless picture book series about a girl’s adventures into another realm! Another realms are always nice spots for adventuring. Book signing to follow program!

Community:

The holiday season is a time when a lot of people feel a ton of pressure to put themselves in really difficult situations! It’s hard for everyone and very few people are on board with our “Let’s silently play boardgames” method of dealing with difficult people during the holidays. Learn how to practice supporting your emotional well-being during a real tough time of the year!

All ages and abilities are welcome! You only sing what you feel comfortable singing, lyrics provided! You’re also going to get to sing Thriller which everyone likes! Don’t shop on Black Friday because it’s an anti-holiday designed to punish retail workers!

See Jane Yolen’s stories come to life with large string puppets! Director Therese Brady Donohue and musician Karen Tarlow bring to life adaptations of Nocturne, the Old MacDonald Sing-a-long, and Mouse’s Birthday!

This is the one where they made that super downbeat ad where it looks like the main Car died which was an odd mood to set. We’ve heard nothing particularly good about this film but we can 100% guarantee your kid will find it entrancing.

We’re not certain what separates this from just pointing at a bunch of escaped animals but we assume they have some method to slow them down briefly so you can see them more clearly or something. Advance registration required, space is limited! Call 413-665-2642!

Movies:

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM

Family Movie Matinee

A special showing of the 2017 live-action and definitely absolutely necessary Beauty and the Beast remake! See all of your favorite characters, only now all of the furniture-people are baroque and terrifying!

RPGs:

A D&D club for players 8-12! Play a god trapped in mortal form so whenever you need to retire the character you can explain to everyone that actually you were the toughest and best all along, notwithstanding that time you rolled three critical fails and tripped over your armor into a lava pit.

The Valley Nerd Watch!

We’re excited and nervous this week because it’s time for Nerd Night at the Academy of Music! It’s going to be a very fun time and we thank you very much for coming and bringing 100 friends! You can grab tickets at the site: https://www.aomtheatre.com/event/nerd-nite/ or at the door!

We also want to point you to a local artist’s kickstarter! It’s a comic called The Next Dance:

One year ago, Hayley’s leg was crushed in a car accident. Today she is still struggling to walk. Every day is a battle, and although her husband Nathan supports her as best he can, what she really needs is someone who understands what she’s going through. Enter the charming and funny Emilio, whose loss of his right hand a year before gives him insight into Hayley’s situation. Or so he thinks…but the truth is that Hayley is coping with far more than Emilio realizes.

“Tell It Like It Is or Could Be” presents work by contemporary photographers who use their camera to (re)construct historical and personal narratives. Join us for a night of self-exploration and the chance to be photographed by emerging artist, Jonathan Jackson. Also, selfie-stations, snacks, and more! First come, first served. Make some art and get some snacks! What could be better?

Board Games:

The best con in town! From the site: “JiffyCon is a small local convention, dedicated to showcasing independently published and small-press role playing games. This year Modern Myths will be facilitating JiffyCon, and with the help of SSFFS, Smith’s Science Fiction & Fantasy Society, it will be at Seelye Hall at Smith. Saturday, October 28, 2017 9:00am thru 11:00pm Games start at 9am, doors open and sign ups at 8:00 am. Registration is $25, or $20 with student ID. Registration includes Dinner. All attendees must agree to the JiffyCon Code of Conduct. Check out https://modern-myths.com/events/jiffycon-2017/ for complete information & pre-registration!”

Play board games at a wonderful local store! The staff will help you set yourself up, and you’ll quickly be exploring fun new games with a whole bunch of other friendly Valley residents! There’s also always a game demo available to show you something new! Beginners welcome, ages 13+ recommended, younger folks welcome with a parent!

Books:

From the site: “A Psychological Thriller: There’s a Dark Side to Wealth & Privilege. Let’s chat about crime vs. punishment * The relativity of good & evil in a changing world … Presented by the author, Alice Shane”

From the site (http://www.odysseybks.com/event/robert-olmstead-savage-country): “… This is a gripping narrative of that infamous hunt, which drove the buffalo population to near extinction–the story of a moment in our history in which mass destruction of an animal population was seen as the only route to economic solvency. But it’s also the intimate story of how that hunt changed Michael and Elizabeth forever.”

Comics:

A comic workshop! Not 100% certain what form this takes but it’s probably going to be a lot of fun!

Community:

Tuesday, October 24th

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM

Immigrant “Know Your Rights” Presentation

From the site: “Are you an immigrant or an ally who is concerned about your status? The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation (PAIR) Project will be conducting a “Know Your Rights” presentation. Come to learn more about your rights when interacting with immigration officials, understanding your legal status and the immigration court process, where to find trusted legal resources, and what programs might be available to you. Free & open to the public.”

Computers:

Monday, October 23rd

MYSTERY LOCATION at 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Monthly Full Stack Meetup: A Comparison of Ruby/Rails and Elixir/Phoenix

From the site (https://www.meetup.com/wmasswebdev/): “Michael Bishop will be joining us to compare and contrast Ruby/Rails and Elixir/Phoenix in an attempt to understand how using Elixir can break up some of the mental scar tissue we’ve built up from years of writing web servers that require external services for state.”

From the site (https://www.meetup.com/wmasswebdev/): “What have you been working on lately? What issues have you run into and what have you learned? This can about anything, from code to project management. One topic that will be presented: hooks versus events in Drupal 8. “

Another Castle [30 Olive St #2, Greenfield, MA] at 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Another Castle | Open House

From the site (https://www.meetup.com/pioneer-valley-game-developers/events/243982151/): “Another Castle is located at 30 Olive Street, right next to the John W. Olver Transit Center in the heart of Greenfield, MA. Come check out all that we have to offer in our nearly 4,000 sq/ft space. Snacks, pizza and non-alcoholic beverages will be provided. We’ll have information about the space and will be giving tours. Check out games by local developers and participate in some friendly social networking!”

Jelani Cobb will takle the enormously complex issue of race in the United States. He’s penned a series of article in the New Yorker that address race, the police, and injustice. He’s also the creator of the investigative series Policing the Police, which aired on PBS Frontline in 2016. He currently teaches at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Anime is an art form that we have scattered experience with but a lot of people wicked like. The nice part about anime is that you pretty much only need to pick one show and you’ll have 11,000 hours to get through. We once started watching One Piece, saw it had 500 30-minute episodes, and slowly walked into the sea.

Friday, October 27th

Look Park at 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM

Exemplary Trees of Look Park

Look at the nicest trees in Look Park! Well, the most impressively large ones at least. Guide Bob Leverett will lead the 3-hour guided walk! Pre-registration requeired, $8 for members and $12 for non-members, email lsanders [at] historicnorthampton [dot] org!

From the site (https://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/tellitslant):”Garrison Keillor returns to Amherst in a benefit performance for the Emily Dickinson Museum on Sunday, October 29 at 6 pm in Amherst College’s Johnson Chapel. Mr. Keillor, currently in the midst of a cross-country tour of his one-man show, will deliver a special program that weaves Emily Dickinson into an evening of storytelling and song.”

History:

American Cemetery Design and the Bridge Street Cemetery by Martha H. Lyon, ASLA

From the site (https://www.historicnorthampton.org/programs.html): “Martha Lyon will present a 30-minute talk about the history of American cemetery design. Following the talk, she will lead an interactive “treasure hunt” tour through the Bridge Street Cemetery landscape, identifying design changes, and encouraging participants to spot them too. Limited to 25 participants To register, email lsanders@historicnorthampton.org $8 members; $12 non-members”

Kids:

David has trapped some sort of demon and he will share it with you! But can you afford the price of this demon’s knowledge?

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM

Mysterious Massachusetts

From the site: “Every state has its ghost stories, but no other state has the Dover Demon or the Salem Witch Trials. From sea-side ghosts, to UFOs over the Berkshires, Massachusetts has a rich history of paranormal legend, odd events, and strange denizens. In this workshop, we have a look at some of the most famous of Massachusetts paranormal history.”

Friday, October 27th

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Spooky Teen Lounge w/Movie

A spooky lounge that also has a movie! Those two things, and nought else!

From the site: “The Forbes Library is excited to be hosting a Drag Queen Story Hour, which is exactly what it sounds like: Drag Queens reading stories to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores.”

From the site: “Directed by a schoolteacher, this film became a lightning bolt in the immigration debate as the Rockefeller Foundation labeled it “One of the most important films on American race relations.” Hoover Elementary is located in Pico-Union, known as the ‘Ellis Island’ of Los Angeles. After the passage of Proposition 187 into law, teacher Laura Angelica Simon feared she would be forced to turn in her undocumented students to the INS. She was equally disturbed by the support the Proposition was receiving from teachers, even though it would harm their own students. Armed with borrowed equipment, Simon began chronicling this troubled and divisive chapter at Hoover Elementary.”

RPGs:

A monthly D&D club for players 8-12! You can become a member of this club by prepaying $50. That gets you help with creating a character, a mini, a custom D&D session, and a set of dice! It’s the perfect way to play a fun game with friends! We recommend you play a bard. Actually everyone should play as a bard and you should be adventurers by day and a traveling band by night!

Play a game where you pretend to be another person! That covers a pretty wide range, so we don’t know exactly what’ll be up here but for some reason most of these games involves swords and dragons at some point. Even if someone tells you you’re going to be playing an RPG about minding a small convenience store, take a few levels in Longswords just in case.

Science:

Monday, October 23rd

Academy of Music Theatre in Northampton at 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Nerd Night at the Academy

Yay! It’s here! It’s here! See two physicists explain the universe to you as introduced by two incredibly nervous people! It’s going to be a fun night in a beautiful old theater! From the site: “Presenters Gary Felder and Brokk Toggerson will cover themes related to the work of Albert Einstein as connective tissue and food for thought around our November Season Series performance of Jack Fry’s one-man show, Einstein! Come schmooze, have a drink and talk science!”

From the site: “Given the early fall record-breaking heat wave, the hottest years on record all occurring in the last 4 years, the recent drought, and the extreme storms that the northeast and the country are experiencing, you may be wondering what climate change has in store for our own Connecticut River Valley. This presentation will focus on the expected impacts of climate change to the natural environment, including gardens, invasive plants, trees, and wildlife in your own backyard.”

The Valley Nerd Watch!

Are you going to see Nerd Nite tomorrow? You should! It’ll be fun! It’s going to be about bats and manipulative presenting tactics! Educational, fun, all the things you like. We’re finally going after that lucrative bats and sociology crowd.

We’re also going to be at The Academy of Music on the 23rd of October! They have 800 seats, did you know that? Did you know that they have more seats than we knew they had and that if people sat in all those seats it would be nervewracking but also if there were a bunch of empty seats it would be a different sort of nervewracking? Anyway please attend!

Hey have you seen the nice retro poster designs that Aaron Wood does? Why not buy a few? They’re all cool and it’s nice supporting a local artist, isn’t it?

Also we forgot if we already said this recently but are you interested in a gigantic number of old comics? We’ve got a gigantic number of old comics. That’s where we keep getting these header images. If you want expensive rare ones, we’re happy to take your money. If you want every issue of Spawn, we’re happy to take a very little of your money!

A Kenyan photographer who lives and works in Nairobi, Mimi has practiced all over the world! From her studies in Cape Town, to residences in Berlin and exhibitions in Mozambique, she’s doing a whole ton of excellent photography! Learn more about her artistic practice at this talk!

Each Tuesday, meet up in the Teen Room and walk as a group to the Radioplasma Recording Studio at 306 Race St. to learn about media literacy, get hands-on experience with song recording, journalism, storytelling, and sound mixing! Also, oddly enough, carpentry. No one tries to make it happen, but everyone comes out knowing more about how to make those nice invisible wood joins.

Teens! Come hang out in the Teen Room, your designated room, to create! Write, draw, make jewelry, design things in 3D, play with their technology! Use the library’s resources to make your dreams… reality.

Learn how to re-purpose discarded book pages into paper flowers using the Kusudama technique! All materials are provided, but feel free to bring your own decorative accents for the center of the flowers! Amber Ladley is a lifelong crafter and creative entrepreneur, and finds a lot of joy helping people learn how to do stuff that reduces waste! So find joy with her at this session!

Comic Books:

The big event this week! “Join us on FRIDAY, September 15th for our annual celebration of defying the odds for one more year! We’ll have our usual spread: Pizza, soft drinks, and amazing (totally vegan!) cupcakes! ALL attendees will receive a door prize, and one lucky winner will get to be our latest LIFETIME VIP, with free admission to all future Day Pass events and FIFTEEN of our sweet new $5 Tokens to spend however they like! We’ll also have a special prize for the winner of our Modern Myths Trivia Contest, where we see who knows the most about the history of the store! Doors open at 6:30 PM and pizza arrives at 7:00. This event is open to ALL AGES, and is totally free, our gift back to the community that’s kept us around for so long. Call or stop by the store for any additional details.”

Community:

From the site: “Marie Betts Bartlett, author and illustrator of The Little Yellow Trolley Car, will describe her strategies for writing, illustrating and discussing her children’s picture book Poppy’s Purpose, which is a true story based on a subway car that survived the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.”

Computers:

MYSTERY LOCATION at 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Making Smart Technical Decisions – Monthly Full Stack Meetup

“In this meetup, we’ll discuss technical decisions and their impact over the span of years. When is the best time to migrate from an antiquated system that is becoming a pain to manage? Is it worth months of effort to port functionality to the latest and greatest service? Could we avoid these problems up front? Can we migrate incrementally without getting stuck?” Figure out how to resolve technical issues that snag great projects! Check out the Meetup to make sure you know where to meet up! https://www.meetup.com/wmasswebdev/events/242981781/

Agile! It’s the currently in vogue method for getting things done, and it seems to work rather well for a lot of folks! Learn how to make it work even more excellently by speaking with this group of excellent ScrumMasters and associated experts! There’s pizza and discussion as well as a presentation about specific techniques!

Librarian and officially licensed Tech Wizard Dylan Tibert will teach you the fundamentals of designing your own website using WordPress. Classes will be a one hour lecture followed by a hands-on workshop. Perfect for experienced computer users who are beginners at web design! This class covers how to improve the page you built with CSS, SEO, and analytics!

Entertainment:

Thoreau hated the train, and we’re going to use the Palmer’s own joke here because we love it, he “railed” against it! But nonetheless it was an important part of his life! He went to lectures, visited friends, and traveled around New England, Palmer, and the to the Midwest! Corinne Smith will let you know why!

Listen to Steve Forbes, noted winner of the HIGHLY PRESTIGIOUS “Crystal Owl” award, speak about the only way for your life to get better is for him to get way more money as quickly as possible. And really we just want to focus on the fact that this extremely wealthy and powerful man with a storied life full of basically non-stop achievement of everything he could want is really putting the danged Crystal danged Owl award front-and-center. We suppose it’s to burnish his bonifides but for real. We’re going to start saying this site has won the Spangled Starling award 9 times every time we send an email.

A big celebration of Eid al-Adha, the Sacrifice Feast, which is one of the biggest Muslim holidays celebrated worldwide every year! Author and commentator and broadcaster Haroon Moghul will be there talking and we’re guessing signing books, and you’ll be able to get food for $8 if you’re a non-student!

Play the Ukulele? Just like the look of it and want to try? Play songs and learn at the Jam!

Saturday, September 16th

MYSTERY LOCATION at 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Game of Thrones S1E4 & Potluck

Everyone really liked having a GoT meetup, so they’re doing it again! The first time the plan was to watch just the first episode, but it wound up being the first three! See if this one can keep itself under control! Bring food or drink to share!

A sign-a-long for babies and toddlers! We imagine the babies are quite a bit less capable of the whole “along” part of the singalong but they have fun. There’s also always a snack, so your kids will not turn into the scary kind of Gremlin.

Movies:

Before the Flood is a film about the ways in which climate change affects our environment and what society can do to save some of what we love. A discussion of the film and climate change will be held after the screening. We recommend holding a discussion about ice cream in your tummy after that if you want to cheer up a bit.

“Stan Sherer’s film, The Brush Shop, will be shown at the Westhampton Public Library. This film tells the story of a vital Northampton industry through interviews with former Pro Brush people, archival photographs and commercials and advertisements from different periods.” Learn more about the history of your lovely Valley!

Play D&D with excellent pals, new players welcome! There will be pizza, an integral part of playing D&D!

Science:

Monday, September 11th

World War 2 Club [50 Conz St., Northampton, MA 01060] at 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Nerd Nite NoHo!

It’ll be another wonderful time with the nerds! Meet new people, have a good night out at a fine local establishment, and learn about how to influence people with presentations and how the bats are doing! Did you not know the bats were having a hard time? They were! We’ll find out why and whether we should be nervous about these cute critters having a hard time again!

The Valley Nerd Watch!

Happy Labor Day! It’s a good day off to spend thinking about how you can organize to help out your fellow laborers. Maybe check out the Pioneer Valley Workers Center? Or like consider actually attending some union or other workplace community-building event this week instead of blowing it off as we’ve done for approximately 100% of the times we’ve had the opportunity.

It’s important to support and join together your fellow workers, because the odds that you wake up having inherited a billion dollars and therefore not needing nobody nohow are getting lower and lower each day.

You can also take this day off to offer support to the people who make our Valley something wonderful! Maybe buy one of the excellent illustrations from Bryant Paul Johnson’s store?

THIS WEEK

Art:

Each Tuesday, meet up in the Teen Room and walk as a group to the Radioplasma Recording Studio at 306 Race St. to learn about media literacy, get hands-on experience with song recording, journalism, storytelling, and sound mixing! Also, oddly enough, psychology. No one tries to make it happen, but everyone comes out knowing more about attachment styles.

Teens! Come hang out in the Teen Room, your designated room, to create! Write, draw, make jewelry, design things in 3D, play with their technology! Use the library’s resources to make your dreams… reality.

Learn how to write well! We imagine this will teach you the age-old lesson that every truly great book has a character whose central conflict is that they can’t find a pair of boots that not only fit but are waterproof and stylish.

Reframing Northampton: A Contemporary View of the Howes Brothers Photographs by Sara Lyons

Sara Lyons has revisited and re-photographed a bunch of the homes that the Howes Brothers documented over 100 years ago. Her contemporary portraits will be displayed alongside the original Howes Brothers images. We presume the purpose to to lord it over the past, showing off how much cooler our house are now that we have color. Check it out at Northampton Art’s Night Out!

Sandra Matthews will speak on photographic portraits and history in conjunction with the Reframing Northampton exhibition! She’ll explain what’s up with photo portraits and what they reveal about our history!

Sections for K-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12 grades! A four-round Swiss System tournament where trophies will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in each section. Free entry, but bring a chess set and clock if you’ve got them! And a bagged lunch! Remember that if you seem to be losing you can combine your Queen with two Rooks and two Bishops to create a mecha that can move and fire twice per turn!

Sections for K-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12 grades! A four-round Swiss System tournament where trophies will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in each section. Free entry, but bring a chess set and clock if you’ve got them! And a bagged lunch! Remember that if you seem to be losing you can always petition to switch to chess-boxing midstream.

Librarian and officially licensed Tech Wizard Dylan Tibert will teach you the fundamentals of designing your own website using WordPress. Classes will be a one hour lecture followed by a hands-on worksop. Perfect for experienced computer users who are beginners at web design! This class covers how to build your page!

A sign-a-long for babies and toddlers! We imagine the babies are quite a bit less capable of the whole “along” part of the singalong but they have fun. There’s also always a snack, so your kids will not turn into the scary kind of Gremlin.

Another chance to discuss and critique your films, in a special and extremely cool after-hours setting! The cafe is usually closed at this hour, but you can come in and order drinks and baked goods after you pay your $5 to cover the rental of the space. A great chance to expand your knowledge!

Maddy is hermetically sealed into her house because of an illness, Olly is the boy next door that falls in love with her! They form a bond so deep they’re willing to risk everything to be together. We’re kind of assuming they just consult with medical professionals about how to best maintain a safe environment for Maddy while allowing for visits and eventually moving out of that specific house or something? Like it doesn’t seem necessary to “risk everything”, right? She’s got a lot of people who are working hard to keep her healthy, this should be a team effort! It’s possible this is explained in the narrative but there’s no way for us to know.

Saturday, September 9th

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Jane Austen Film Festival: Emma

Emma is about a really charming person doing a bunch of very silly and kind of annoying things, but it all works out in the end. Basically we’ve just described ‘a comedy’ but like, Jane Austen wrote a very good comedy.

The Valley Nerd Watch!

This week is starting out pretty good we think! We recommend checking out the Queers in Comics & Games discussion at Modern Myths tomorrow. It’s a great place to meet new people and have a chat, and it’s a way to support a wonderful local shop! And you get a great excuse to spend $5 on some comics and games!

This past week we again had a lovely time at Wednesday Games at The Brass Cat! We got to play Tiny Epic Quest, which is a fun if slightly overly fluffy game. There were little bits and bobs that you could attach to your tiny meeple figures and frankly they mostly contributed to an avalanche of plastic which might be lost. Also, it was rough getting a clear grasp of some of the mechanics until 3/5 turns in, which had the effect of making everyone at various points suddenly very sad as they realize oh shoot I messed up bad!

Still once things got going it was nice, and the mechanics worked together to ensure that the finish-line wasn’t too far away once we had coherent plans in place. We think Tiny Epic Galaxies was more fun and less fuss, though.

Also earlier we got to play Time of Crisis, an excellent game from the always-spectacular and often confusing GMT! This one wasn’t confusing, though! It’s just a very straightforward attempt to rack up victory points by controlling and improving parts of Rome, and then becoming Emperor at the right moment! Making things a bit more interesting is a system of deck-building that doesn’t require you to shuffle, so you can spend time figuring out how you want to construct your next couple hands as you look at your deck. We had a blast even though we got soundly defeated.

We also just had a fun time building characters for Breaking The Ice of the Romance Trilogy, excellent game by local excellent person Emily Care Boss of Black & Green Games. We highly recommend you check it out! A rare two-person RPG, it’s the perfect game to play with a pal who’s a bit nervous about getting into an adventuring party!

THIS WEEK

Art:

Each Tuesday, meet up in the Teen Room and walk as a group to the Radioplasma Recording Studio at 306 Race St. to learn about media literacy, get hands-on experience with song recording, journalism, storytelling, and sound mixing! Also, oddly enough, geology. No one tries to make it happen, but everyone comes out knowing more about sediment.

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Teen Craft: Shrink, Shrank, Shrunk (Making Jewlery)

We enjoy the fact that they definitely liked the name of this but realized it in no way communicated ‘Jewelry’ at the end. They made it work, though! Create jewelry using stamps, Shrinky Dink material, and a heat source! Open to ages 11-17, pre-register by calling 413-259-3091 or at teens@joneslibrary.org by 5:30pm Monday!

Learn to play the only instrument that looks like a small guitar besides a guitar that’s quite small. Julie brings her 20 Ukuleles and her prepared lessons to get the playing started! This is limited to 20 participants! Reserve a Ukulele by registering early by calling 413-420-8101! We suppose you could also just attend willy-nilly, but you may wind up watching 20 other people learn to play Ukulele.

Board Games:

Play board games at a wonderful local store! The staff will help you set yourself up, and you’ll quickly be exploring fun new games with a whole bunch of other friendly Valley residents! There’s also always a game demo available to show you something new! Beginners welcome, ages 13+ recommended, younger folks welcome with a parent!

Card Games:

Learn to play Magic in a casual setting with the friendly staff of Modern Myths! Test out a cool new deck, play with constructed decks if other folks are into it, get special door prizes! It’s the perfect night for new Magic players or people who just want to take it easy! It’s $5 to attend, which is immediately converted to store credit.

Comic Books:

Talk to a bunch of wonderful people about LGBTQIA+ representation in comics and games of all stripes! It’s moderated by the spectacular store manager, and admission is a day pass of $5 that immediately becomes store credit!

Community:

Get information about becoming a foster parent! Get started on helping out some kids!

Thursday, August 31st

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM

Creating Community for Women with Chronic Illness

We hold a monthly support group for women living with a variety of chronic illnesses (e.g. autoimmune disorder, MS, arthritis, Crohn’s and colitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lyme disease, etc.). It is free and open to the public.

Computers:

A Raspberry Jam is a place for young and old, experienced hands and new folks, to learn about Raspberry Pi! What is Raspberry Pi? A tiny inexpensive computer you can practice coding with! And Robotics! If that sounds neat, come hang out and learn more!

Librarian and officially licensed Tech Wizard Dylan Tibert will teach you the fundamentals of designing your own website using WordPress. Classes will be a one hour lecture followed by a hands-on workshop. Perfect for experienced computer users who are beginners at web design! This class covers how to get started with web servers and WordPress!

Entertainment:

Watch anime! Watch one about robots! Gundam, maybe? There are more than one Gundam series, right? We just heard about one episode being so bad it was expelled from the canon, which could be fun to watch!

Take a trip back, in TIME that is! Back to the era of the Mesozoic! We think. We’re about 90% certain. It’s also possible that this is a 50’s throwback band but we’re almost entirely sure that it’s a dinosaur-themed ‘rock’ band haha get it. Bring blankets or lawn chairs! Free to all and sundry!

Check out the film first! Watch it at home! They don’t screen the film there! You can use Kanopy.com to see it too! Then, again we stress after having already watched the film, go talk about it with these friendly folks!

Meet in the Lobby with the friendly friends of the Western Mass Sci-Fi Meetup! You can sit together at the film and discuss it afterward! This movie sounds very neat: “The special effects, outrageous plot line and apocalyptic message harmonize with the otherworldly score and a climactic live performance by one of the most innovative and profound groups in jazz history.”

Saturday, September 2nd

Jones Library [43 Amity St., Amherst, MA 01002] at 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM

Jane Austen Film Festival: Northanger Abbey

Watch a beautiful Jane Austen movie about an abbey named Northanger, and all the adventures it has! We have not read this Jane Austen book.

RPGs:

Play the old familiar, the classic, the one with dungeons and also dragons! You’ll be exploring the Dwarven fortress Stone Tooth! The adventure is recommended for characters of at least level 3. To enter, you need to get a $5 day pass, but that becomes store credit immediately!

RPGs are great! Play Noirlandia, or Questlandia, or Dread, or Monsterhearts, or Apocalypse World, or Dogs in the Vineyard, or One Thousand and One Nights, or any of a lot of amazing games created right here in this Valley! They’re all very good!

Return, heroes, to Elmerton! A season has been spent away, and now’s the time to discover what has changed! You can find out as a Player Character or a Non Player Character, and if you want to be a Non Player and help flesh out the cast, it’s free and includes meals! Check out https://www.meetup.com/larping/events/242818315/!